Conferencing servers typically accept information from multiple participants in a conferencing session and process and direct the information back out to the participants. One example of a conferencing server is an audio/video conferencing server. An audio/video conferencing server typically accepts audio and/or video streams from multiple conference participants, mixes the audio, and selects the video stream for one or more of the participants for display to the other participants. A participant selected for viewing by the other participants is sometimes referred to as a most active participant, because they may be a participant that is talking the loudest or otherwise ‘has the floor’.
Performance is a major issue in the design and operation of conferencing servers, especially audio/video conferencing servers. As more participants join a conference, an increasing burden is placed on the conferencing server to provide audio mixing, video decoding and encoding, bandwidth scaling, encryption, and decryption.